Death
by Trans
Summary: I've cheated it twice, but no one can ecscape the Grim Reaper's grasp. It always finds a way to get its revenge.


**Death**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of its characters

**AN: **This story randomly came into my head, and wouldn't leave me alone.

It's feared. It's always present. The clock is ever ticking for us. Its ominous with claws stretching towards our aging flesh with hooked talons.

I used to scoff at death. I've never been the type to fear something just for it being there. Crouching like a tiger... I always thought along the lines of 'how bad could it be.' Death was never able to dig its claws into my tethered soul.

I've thwarted death twice now, and I was beginning to feel invincible. I was protected from its ghostly touch. Above its dirty tricks. I would never fall I thought. I could soar so high, that finally death would hold no meaning.

But death is crafty and unrelenting. It doesn't like to be beaten. When it ebbs one way it reaps its silver sickle elsewhere.

My mother fell at the swipe of its metal only six months after my grand return from Makai. I was stronger than ever, and felt even farther from that dark horizon slowly sucking everyone else in.

She had slumped farther into her bad habits during my absence, and I barely came back in time to watch her crash. Why had I left just when she started diving, diving deeper? I was a fool to let my guard down.

Drunken binges, being away for weeks at a time, and finally...she didn't come home. She would never come home.

She hadn't planned on coming home at all...she was skidding farther away to drop off the edge.

In her drunken haze she ran her car off the road, metal contacting metal, as it rapped around a light pole. Her thin frame was catapulted through the windshield and pinned between the two impacting bodies.

Bone crunching, skin splitting, blood spilling moment. With death's an audience. It must have been planned all along.

The incapacitated man with her survived, and trust me, the irony over who lived was not lost on me. It was death's revenge. Her silent retaliation on my flippant reaction to her advances.

They couldn't even remove her body from its contorted pedestal until the mangled car was hauled off. She died alone, and in such a un-respectful way. It disgusts me.

...I had to come in to identify the body...

I'll never forget how pale her features where. So calm, like a passing breeze. Cuts marred her forehead, and cheeks so much I could hardly recognize her, but the stench of sake and cigarettes was familiar to me no matter how battered she was.

The loss of my mother, the only person I've ever had, stripped me bear of my immortal attitude. You see death could get me no matter what I did.

_Yusuke: 2 Death: 1 _It whispered silkily in my ear.

I understand now how it must have felt for her to sit through my wake when I first died...And despite my pleas to Koenma he wouldn't give her back to me. Willingly or not was always, and will always, be Death's ally.

Then I married Keiko, clinging to her for stability. Death's first win took a piece of me. I crumpled under its weight, and cried at the indignity of it.

My friends were there for me, not letting the depressing event turn me against myself. I barely survived that fist casualty.

Just like they cared for me I was there for Kurama when Death decided to skim through his life. He too had dodged her clammy fist. When his heart break came many years had passed since death's first claim. Shiori died peacefully in her sleep due to old age.

_Yusuke: 2 Death: 2 _That voice haunted me in my dreams.

The kitsune was distraught, but I think the way of her passing eased the mental torment just a little. With nothing left to tie him here he followed Hiei's lead and left to live in Makai.

That is the pattern it seems for us demons. Stay until our loved ones dwindle away and then head home. Only Ningenkai is my home...how much of me is really demon? Where will I go?

I was content here...to live my life with Keiko. We never had children, because we were afraid that they might inherit my genes, and continue the half-breed line that was too powerful for its own good. Still I was happy. We were happy.

Things seemed to shatter that day that is so cruelly imprinted in my memory. Our perfect shell fracturing into feathery imperfections...The lump in her breast...wasn't benign.

The cancer was everywhere, tainting her body, and spreading like hungry locus devouring her life.

During this time Genkai finally died in her sleep of old age, she would have hated that, she never like to go the easy way. Yukina left fro the demon world after that, leaving Kuwabara here, his heart broken. Things became too much for me after that. The pressure of managing the now empty temple, and handling the pain of seeing Keiko endure radiation therapy slowly chipped away at me.

But I had to be strong for her, and I was...until the very end.

_Yusuke: 2 Death: 4 _Her funeral was beautiful, and that voice... It refused to leave me alone.

No this I wouldn't take. I didn't want to lose her! Death couldn't-no-wouldn't win! I tried to take back this stolen point. I really did try with every once of anger, anguish, and despair that I felt.

Koenma pitied me. That is what he said...he wouldn't bend the rules for me this time. I hated him! Him and his pity! I hated his palace, and the stupid fucking spirit world! I hated every one! I hated these feelings. I hate myself, but most of all, I hated death.

Along my path through life all the people I love have fallen away to that dark hand, and I am helpless to stop it. And all to remind me of what I escaped? Now my last tie to this world lies on his deathbed.

I've never grown old over my many years here. My skin has yet to wrinkle, or my hairs turn gray. This is why I have become such a recluse since Keiko's demise. It is hard to witness my friend, that was once brimming with youth, now withered away. His once vibrantly orange locks are stained a dull gray.

Humans are so fragile; they age and become sickly. It is miserable to watch... Over and over again. That is why they leave isn't it? Even a stone cold demon can not take this world melting way around them. Maikai doesn't represent home...its a refuge from the pain.

"Uremeshi." His voice is weak and raspy. It makes me flinch slightly; another wave of panicky seizes my heart. I can feel his energy wavering. It is slipping away, drained by deaths siphon, straight into her hungry mouth.

"Hey Kuwa." The score echoes dauntingly over and over in my head. _Yusuke: 2 Death: 5._ Death you have me beaten. I hate you. I loathe you. Why take everything from me?

He puts on a small smile, and closes his eyes. My hand falls over his to hold him reassuringly as he leaves his body. One last small squeeze on his part, and I know he is gone. Lost to me. I don't want to see him like this anymore. I don't want to remember any of their faces without that light behind them, but sadly each moment is engraved in my mind. I won't forget them, and the punishment that they befell on my behalf.

There is no point on me lingering here. It is time, I think, to finally take my leave. I stand up shakily, refusing to shed anymore tears on deaths doorstep, and walk away without a single glance back.

Now I need my solace, my dear, bleak Makai.

AN: Don't forget to review!


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